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The founding generations of the modern day Republic
of Turkey, who predominantly shaped the national
culture, institutions, politics and economy of the
republic almost until 1950, grew up in the ‘twilight’ of
the Ottoman Empire. Their formative experiences
were shaped within the confines of a shrinking empire
where rising nationalisms, incorporation into world
markets and modern reforms caused ‘everything solid’
to ‘melt into air.’ This course takes the formation of a
broadly defined group of intellectuals, the Young
Turks, as a starting point and discusses how the ideas
and actions of a selected group of influential figures,
as ‘Unionists’ and later ‘Kemalistst’ shaped
contemporary Turkey. The course relies heavily on
the secondary literature in English and also on
primary sources and ego documents about the
individuals in question. Major topics in Turkish
Studies, such as identity politics, the formation of
Turkish nationalism, the new republic’s economic
policies and the institutions are traced through the
eyes of these individuals and their policies.
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